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Smart Plug not able to setup Hidden SSID from home WiFi

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ISP : [/COLOR]

Hello,

I have TP-Link Smart Plug HS100 and HS110. During the setup via Kasa App to connect these Smart Plug devices to my home WiFi, I couldn't get the Kasa App to connect to my WiFi hidden SSID. The app did not allow for me to enter the name of the hidden SSID. The app only showed the broadcast SSIDs. I am aware that these smart plug can only works with 2.4GHz WiFi network and my hidden SSID is on 2.4GHz band. The smart plugs are only a few feet away from the router, so it's not signal strength.

Does anyone know if it's possible to have Kasa App to connect my Smart Plug to a hidden 2.4 GHz SSID ? If this is not possible, I think TP-Link should consider this as an enhancement. Other manufacturers allow device setup with hidden SSID.

When you come to the page choosing a router's wifi, click on I'd like to use a different network on the bottom.
Then go to the bottom, choose Manually Setup My Wi-Fi.
There you can type in the ssid and password of your router manually.

thanks for your reply, the only problem is that it can't connect to it. I also tried to make my SSID visible, do the configuration and then hide again, no luck. when the HS110 is unplugged / plugged, it can't connect to wifi anymore.I give it one more try anyway.

Are you able to configure the plug fine when the ssid is visible?
Actually this won't work after you hide the ssid again.
When you hide the ssid, pay attention to the security type you choose on the Kasa. It should be exactly same as your main router.

at security type I only can set WPA2 (but no aes or tkip), I have aes. I assume its auto-detected.
I tried to set my hidden wifi manually in kasa, no luck. I read that the SSID shouldn't be longer than 8 characters. When you made it working, your SSID was longer than 8 chars?

if it has to work, then maybe I'm just overlooking something very common.

Don't bother hiding your SSID. There's a mistaken view that it's useful for security; it is not. Anyone who can break into a wifi network is not stopped by a hidden SSID, they will be scanning for any vulnerable signal. Anyone who can be stopped by a hidden SSID doesn't have the knowledge or skill to break in even if the SSID is visible.

I got the point but it doesn't answer my question. I prefer my guest wifi to be visible and my internal to be hidden. and that's it. I know as well that hidden wifi sometimes more hassle since each device broadcasts a query on my wireless network to connect to a hidden ap, but the point is: I'd like to get this solved on this way.
Thank you for your reply though. The network will remain hidden. I'd rather use another product which supports it than unhide it.

vieldcs@ I can connect to it when the network is not hidden, but it can't connect on the way you mentioned above. simply can't found the hidden network at all when entering its details manually. catch22

Also, another question: (maybe not in the best forum topic though) Kasa uses broadcast to find the device each time I start the app, or its directly connecting to the MAC / IP of the device? My network setup is:

192.168.10.0/24 - internal wifi (hidden ssid - more than 8 character long)
192.168.20.0/24 - guest wifi (public ssid - less than 8 character long) -- btw: is there still a limitation of SSID length? I read that this was a problem in the past.

I'm connecting to 192.168.10.0/24 with my phone , and can access the device via http on 192.168.20.0/24, and also can ping, so all ports are accessible from the internal wifi to the guest wifi.
Kasa can't connect to the device for some reason.

so long story short: Kasa and the device must be in the same broadcast domain, or can be in separate routed networks?